Keep Arkansas Beautiful invites Arkansans to clean up their communities this spring

LITTLE ROCK (Feb. 15, 2019) – As part of the annual Keep America Beautiful™ Great American Cleanup®, the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission (KAB) invites Arkansans to organize or volunteer in a local cleanup between March 1 and May 31.

The Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup in Arkansas, organized and promoted statewide by KAB, is an annual spring cleanup event when communities focus on local beautification efforts in advance of Arkansas’s tourism season. Cleanup events enhance a community’s roadsides, waterways, parks and neighborhoods by picking up litter, planting flowers, removing bulky waste, recycling materials and improving overall appearance.

“Littering is illegal in Arkansas, and it is ugly and unhealthy. We want Arkansans to no longer tolerate littered places,” said Liz Philpott, volunteer program manager at KAB and statewide cleanup coordinator. “KAB is committed to fostering behavior change and new attitudes to make littering socially unacceptable. We advance that change through volunteer activities and educational outreach, such as statewide cleanup efforts.”

During the 2018 Great American Cleanup in Arkansas, events were registered in 67 counties where 7,215 volunteers picked up nearly 134,000 pounds of litter and collected more than 5.5 million pounds of bulky waste from 949 miles of roadside and 174 miles of waterway. Volunteers also cleaned up more than 4,000 acres of parks and public areas and recycled nearly 250,000 pounds of electronics.

Communities and groups are invited to sign up to organize a local cleanup this year athttps://bit.ly/KABSignUp. Cleanup organizers can use KAB’s free, print-ready promotional items to help recruit volunteers and learn how to organize a cleanup. Resources are available at http://bit.ly/KABClean. Volunteers can find local cleanups on the calendar of events athttp://bit.ly/KABevnt. The Great American Cleanup in Arkansas runs March through May.

In conjunction with the Great American Cleanup, elementary-aged Arkansas students, Scouts, 4-H club members and home-schooled students are encouraged to enter the annual Great American Cleanup in Arkansas Youth Poster Contest. Entries are due Friday, March 1. For details on how to enter, go to http://bit.ly/KABContest.